Image:www.radiomaria.ie When history looks back at poverty and homelessness in Dublin in our times and at the attempts which were made to tackle them, three names, in particular, will be to the fore: Brother Kevin Crowley OFM, Sister Stanislaus Kennedy RSC and Father Peter McVerry SJ. Recently the first of these, at the age of… Read More
Tag: Catholic Blog
Saint Rose of Lima
Image:www.catholicnewsagency.com This week on Tuesday the 23rd we celebrated the feast day of St Rose of Lima who was the first canonized saint of the Americas. She was born in Lima in 1585, the eleventh child of Spanish Indian parents. From her earliest days, she showed an awareness of God and His Son Jesus. When… Read More
No to Nuclear Weapons
Image: www.skynews.com The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted by a United Nations diplomatic conference on 7 July 2017. It is the first applicable multilateral agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons. The first meeting of States Parties to TPNW took place in Austria last week. The aim was to set the tone… Read More
Defender of the Faith: Then and Now
Image:neemopani.com Last weekend was a very special one for the citizens of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland as they observed 4 days of celebration to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. She is the longest-reigning monarch in British History with the previous record-holder being her great-great-grandmother, Victoria who was on the throne… Read More
Heartbreak in Texas
Image: www.buzzfeednews.com Last week we watched and listened in horror as news broke of the mass killing of 21 people at the Rob Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Two teachers and nineteen children, all under twelve, had been finishing their last day of school before breaking up for the summer when the killer, eighteen years… Read More
Justice For All: Ukrainian Humanitarian Crisis
Image:www.independent.ie Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered one of the largest and fastest refugee movements that Europe has witnessed since the end of World War II. By 22 March, only seven days into the war, 874,000 people were estimated to have fled to neighbouring countries. Ireland, a nation of just five million people that in… Read More
Giving Prisoners Hope
Image:www.thejakartapost.com As I write this the Annual Conference of the Association of Prison Officers are meeting in Sligo and some of the issues that have arisen were a subject of a news report headline. While I listened, I was further reinforced in my view that there are few things in life worse than the prospect… Read More
The Annunciation of the Lord
Image:www.reddit.com Mach 25th, marks the Feast of the Annunciation, where the Archangel Gabriel, with Mary, begins the journey of Christianity. This is the moment when God’s decision to break into human history is revealed to the person who is essential for its progression. As Jesus came to earth to do the father’s will, Mary… Read More
St Peter and His Chair
Image:www.ncregiste.com This week, on Tuesday 22 February, we celebrated a feast with an unusual and intriguing name, The Chair of Saint Peter. However, whatever it may sound like this has nothing to do with a piece of furniture, even though there is a physical object with the same name. More anon! We all know who… Read More
World Day of the Sick
Image:www.cardinalsblog.adw.org Friday 11 February is World Day of the Sick and was instituted by Pope John Paul II in 1993 to be celebrated annually on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. People around the world are asked to take time on this day to pray for the sick and for those who work very… Read More
The Consecrated Life
On 2 February the Catholic Church celebrates the World Day For Consecrated Life. Pope St John Paul instituted this annual observance marking it for the first time in 1997. It is celebrated in conjunction with the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, also known as Candlemas Day. This commemorates the presentation of Christ in… Read More
Saint Agnes and the Lamb
On Friday 21st January we celebrate the Feast of Saint Agnes of Rome, a virgin and martyr, held in esteem by the Church since her death circa 304. Her grave near the Via Nomentana was recognized soon after her death. She was young when she was martyred; St Ambrose stated that she was only twelve,… Read More
Looking Forward: Advent & Christmas
For many years, and I can remember it well, there was a great tradition in Ireland of the pre-Christmas shopping season beginning on the Holy Day, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. People from all over the country would descend on Dublin and there was a real sense that the Festive Celebrations… Read More
Dying for the Faith- Red Wednesday
These days there is much written and spoken about how faith and the observance and practise of religion has greatly declined, especially among the younger generation. Sometimes we forget to be grateful for the fact that those of us who do want to go to Church and pray with our fellow believers have the… Read More
Celebration of Life Mass- Sunday 3 October
Celebration of Life Mass- Sunday 3 October Where: St Saviour’s Church, Upper Dominick Street, Dublin 1 In the early days of the lockdown caused by the covid-19 pandemic my good friend’s father died. At that time of course we were unable to go into the Church so there was no funeral Mass. Friends and neighbours… Read More
The Saint of our Time: Padre Pio
On Thursday, 23rd we celebrated the feast day of the man we still refer to as Padre Pio, but who is of course a saint of the Catholic Church, with the title St Pio of Pietrelcina. Born in 1887, to peasant farmers in the Campanian Uplands, he later said… Read More